[Vision2020] Wal-Mart Black Friday Walkouts Can Go On, for Now

[Kenneth Marcy]

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-20/wal-mart-black-friday-walkouts-can-go-on-for-now 


By Elizabeth Dwoskin 
<http://www.businessweek.com/authors/2889-elizabeth-dwoskin> on November 
20, 2012

It looks like a spate of walkouts 
<http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-16/wal-mart-workers-black-friday-strike> 
Wal-Mart workers have planned for Black Friday will go on. The 
Bentonville (Ark.)-based company had accused the workers of illegal 
picketing last Friday, making a rare complaint 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/business/labor-board-to-act-swiftly-on-wal-marts-complaint.html> 
to the National Labor Relations Board. The company asked the board to 
issue an injunction to stop the strikes in their tracks. While the NLRB 
usually takes months to issue a decision, officials said they made this 
case a high priority.

The NLRB weighed in on Tuesday afternoon, with a statement that isn't 
going to make either party particularly pleased. Citing the complexity 
of the case at hand, the NLRB decided to put off a decision until after 
Thanksgiving. "The legal issues---including questions about what 
constitutes picketing and whether the activity was aimed at gaining 
recognition for the union---are complex," NLRB spokeswoman Nancy 
Cleeland said in a statement. "The Memphis Office expects to complete 
its investigation tomorrow (Wednesday). Because of the complexity of the 
case, it will then be sent to the NLRB Division of Advice in Washington, 
D.C., for further analysis. Under these circumstances, the Office of 
General Counsel does not expect to make a decision before Thursday on 
whether or not to seek an injunction to stop the activity."

Forty-two Wal-Mart (WMT 
<http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=WMT>) 
workers protesting low wages and high costs of health insurance walked 
out earlier this month in Southern California and Seattle, according to 
a union-backed coalition of Wal-Mart workers that goes by the name OUR 
Walmart. The NLRB's nondecision in effect allows the strikes to continue 
at least until Friday morning. But it doesn't give the workers sure 
footing going forward. And so, minutes after the NLRB issued its 
nondecision, OUR Walmart filed a counter charge with the NRLB. The 
workers, who are backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, 
alleged that Wal-Mart management threatened workers to attempt to deter 
them from the strike.

Wal-Mart had alleged to the NLRB that the Black Friday walkouts were a 
pretense for a longer campaign by the United Food and Commercial Workers 
to unionize the Wal-Mart employees. Under the National Labor Relations 
Act, a union seeking recognition can picket for a maximum of 30 days. 
After that, it must end the picketing and take a formal unionization 
vote. The company says protests have gone over the 30-day limit.

Angela B. Cornell, director of the Labor Law Clinic at Cornell Law 
School, says those claims will be extremely hard for Wal-Mart to prove. 
For one, workers are allowed to walk off the job. Also, the workers have 
taken pains to demonstrate that the motives for the walkouts are related 
to working conditions, not to union organizing. Some workers have 
alleged that Wal-Mart managers retaliated against them when they 
complained about working conditions. Pickets have taken place across the 
country, and the motives for them appear to be somewhat different across 
stores.

But the connection between OUR Walmart and the UFCW is still murky, 
Cornell says. If Wal-Mart can show that the UFCW is pulling all the 
strings, and can prove the goal of the picketing that began in October 
was to unionize, they just might have a case. "If Wal-Mart can show that 
OUR Walmart is the alter ego of the UFCW, they've moved their case 
forward," Cornell says. "But I don't think it would get them that far."

Dwoskin <mailto:edwoskin at bloomberg.net> is a staff writer for Bloomberg 
Businessweek in Washington.

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